1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mounting means for cameras and accessories providing a tool box for attaching accessories such as lamps, microphones, etc. to a camera, to a pistol grip, to a fishpole boom, and the like.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
Currently, there is no standard way to mount more than one microphone, light or the like onto a video camera. Some cameras provide a "female shoe" into which a microphone's male shoe or a light's male shoe is mounted. Some cameras provide a 1/4-20 accessory thread into which the microphone's 1/4 inch male thread or a light's 1/4 inch male thread is mounted. The problem is, not all microphones and lights can be adapted to mount into both types of fixtures on the video camera. One may have a microphone that will mount easily on a camera with a shoemount type of fixture, but not into the 1/4-20 thread--or vice versa. Adaptors are made for some accessories, but it becomes quite a task to find all the pieces needed to cover every situation.
More importantly, cameras that do provide two fixtures for simultaneous microphone mounting and light mounting do not allow for conflicts in positioning of the pieces to be mounted. That is, a camera may provide two shoemounts, but they are placed linearly (or back to back) causing the microphone and the light to be in each other's way. The camera's design provides a fixed, unchangeable state.
Some cameras provide the 1/4-20 thread and a shoemount or just two 1/4-20 threads. The problem that arises again is that the fixtures are unmovable. The cameraman is at the mercy of where these fixtures are located on the camera. If his microphone comes only with a 1/4-20 thread, he must mount it where the camera manufacturer has placed this fixture. This may place the microphone right in the middle of the light's light field because he is forced to mount the light behind the microphone. The result is a visible shadow on the subject being video-taped and this is unacceptable for critical camera work.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,794 to Bohannon, issued 1988, teaches a multiple shoe assembly for the attachment and removal of accessories on a standard 35 mm camera. More specifically, the device consists of a grip handle that telescopically extends from a base portion to which the camera is attached. At the top of the telescopic grip handle is a universal head which includes a female shoe on its top surface. The universal head includes a lock screw that intersects an aperture which receives an accessory bar that is movable and horizontally adjustable with respect to the grip handle post by tightening or loosening the lock screw. At the distal end of the accessory bar there are two additional female shoes in a 180 degree spatial relationship to one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,250 to Woodruff, issued May 27, 1986 teaches a standard camera hot shoe with a level attached on a threaded mount where a base serves as a male shoe, which is slidably attached to the female counterpart on the top of the camera.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,872 to Vance, et al., issued Jul. 16, 1991, discloses a microphone noise frequency and vibration absorbing mount which is merely a variation on the standard one-shoe mount well known in the art. The device consists of a hollow, accordion-like resilient material attached to a rectangular base, the bottom of which has a standard male shoe that slidably attaches to a female shoe on the top of a video camera. Attached to the top surface of the resilient accordion-like material is a female type shoe device which receives the male shoe of a microphone.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,519 to Padelt, issued Aug. 1, 1967, teaches and claims a mounting means for camera accessories, where a flash attachment, a tripod, and a handle can be simultaneously attached to a camera by means of a mounting stud. The accessories are attached to the mounting stud at three different points by means of a locking screw that threads into a socket at each of the three different positions, i.e., at the base of the camera for the tripod, and at each of the two sides of the camera for the handle and flash.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,493 to Nakagawa et al., issued 1977, teaches a flash holder for a camera made primarily for underwater photography. The flash holder consists of an elongated arm that possesses grooved arm holders at the distal ends with clamps that rotatably attach to the camera and the flash portion respectively. By loosening the clamps, the arm may be moved with respect to the camera, the flash unit and/or both.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,465 to Gallegos, issued 1989, discloses another device for eliminating shadows caused by a flash mechanism. The device is comprised of a unitary mounting bracket for supporting the camera and the flash unit while positioning the flash unit above and rearwardly of the camera lens at a distance that avoids both "red-eye" in the subjects and shadows. The bracket includes a track means with an accessory shoe to which the flash unit is mounted. This enables the flash unit to be moved 90.degree. about the camera lens by merely loosening the screw that secures the shoe to the tract means. Whenever the camera must be rotated in order to change the format, the flash can also be moved with respect to the lens so that it is always above and rearward of it. This is but another teaching of adjustable light sources, but again there is no suggestion of a two-shoe device and its application in attaching two accessories to a video camera while at the same time solving the camera/microphone/light spatial interference problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,343 to Nakatani, issued 1985, teaches a standard video camera with a special switch circuit that insures correct stereophonic recording when a rotatable and detachable stereo microphone is attached to the camera. This is important when the electronic view finder is in a reverse posture mounting as opposed to a normal forward posture mounting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,183 to Ostlund et al., issued 1983, U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,402 to Siegel (1978), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,114 to Telfer, issued 1977, all teach various proposals for movably securing modular lighting accessories to cameras so as to afford the photographer ultimate lighting under different conditions. All these references involve slidable posts, some telescopic, with lockable or engageable lock means that provides variable light orientation positions with respect to the camera lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,135 to Crouch, issued 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,437 to Lippman, issued 1970, U.S. Pat. No. 2,479,716 to Bensen, issued 1949, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,130,262 to Burlin, issued 1938, all teach various bracket means for either attaching a lighting source or handle/tripod mount to a camera. The references teach using threadable posts ('135) and brackets ('437) that allow for the movable attachment of accessories.